Ooops. I missed this.What do we really understand that can accurately be communicated to a person whose beliefs or understandings or definitions are different than ours? I see no one really understanding the trinity. Someone told them it was right and it fits some of the scriptures if no one messes too much with the definitions.
As a child in the Catholic Church I paid lip service to it because that is what the nuns taught us in catechism. They even has prepared picture of a three-leaf clover as a visual aid to go with their explanation. The priest probably mentioned it in some of his talks over the years, but no one gave a better explanation than nun. When I left my regular formal connection to them when I went off to school, I left my last definition connection with the trinity. When God called me back to Him it was through a Oneness Jesus Only group [the UPC] and I have never returned to the trinity even closely.
As to divine, what is the definition of the word? Does it necessarily and always mean no beginning and no ending? Does it necessarily and always mean the One God only?
What if God created Jesus to be a creator/Creator? Is God unable to create a creator? The verse I look to for help in understanding is this one:
"Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou" Gen 41:40
It would be a type or shadow of the difference between the Father God and Jesus. Pharaoh as the Father and Joseph as Jesus.
I don't have a problem with someone not believing in the Trinity,
I have a problem with them calling themselves a Christian.
If traditional Christianity believes in Jesus as God, the HolySpirit as God, since they were begotten, NOT MADE, one in being with the Father, as the N.T. teaches us that Jesus and God are ONE, not two separate entities, then how does one who does not believe this call himself a Christian?
There are some basic beliefs to being a Christian:
1. Belief in God the creator
2. Jesus as His begotten Son.
3. A virgin birth because God is the Father.
4. Jesus died to save us from the wrath of God, to free us from satan.
5. He was resurrected on the third day.
6. We will all be resurrected and the judgement will come (one way or another).
7. The Holy Spirit is God.
8. We believe in Jesus for our salvation in the New Covenant.
Seems like a lot, but it's really simple.
For instance, we say that it's only necessary to believe in Jesus. But Jesus who?
Who is He? Is He merely a man, the Messiah, God?
If one doesn't believe in the virgin birth, then who is His father?
Do we believe in the resurrection? Reincarnation?
And so on. If we don't believe the above, exactly what makes us be Christian?
I think I had a thread on this when I first got here because some here do not believe Jesus is God and yet they call themselves Chrisitian.